Billions of Habitable Planets in the Milky Way

Scientists have discovered that at least 100 so-called "Super Earths" orbiting Red Dwarf stars in the "habitable zone" may have life.

And where there is water that can exist on the surface of a world, then there is the chance for life there.

Dr. Xavier Bonfils, from Grenoble University in France, who lead the international team researching the red dwarfs/super Earths said the following: "Because red dwarfs are so common - there are about 160 billion of them in the Milky Way - this leads us to the astonishing result that there are tens of billions of these planets in our galaxy alone." end quote.

The international team looked at 102 red dwarfs using the European Southern Observatory's 3.6 meter telescope located at La Silla, Chile.

Quoting the article:  A total of nine super-Earths - planets with masses between one and 10 times that of Earth - were found. Two were located within the habitable zones of the stars Gliese 581 and Gliese 667 C. end quote.

THe team also discovered that giant planets like Jupiter or Saturn were rare around red dwarfs.  Less than 12 percent were expected to have such "gas giants."

ANd now for the most important bit of news from this news article.  The science team estimates there are about 100 habitable zone planets within 30 ligh years of Earth.

Check out the link below to view the entire article.



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1. Telegraph.co.uk. "New 'life in space' hope after billions of 'habitable planets' found in Milky Way" by Telegraph writers(unnamed). March 28, 2012. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/9170683/New-life-in-space-hope-after-billions-of-habitable-planets-found-in-Milky-Way.html).

Earth Similarity Index Released

A new paper has been released in the journal Astrobiology about how habitable nearby worlds would be. There are actually two indexes. First one is called: Earth Similarity Index (ESI) and the second one is the Planetary Habitability Index (PHI).

The most habitable alien worlds discovered so far that could harbour extraterrestrial life. Worlds such as Saturn's moon Titan and the exoplanet Gliese 581-g which is 20.5 light-years away in the constellation Libra.

Co-author Dr. Dirk Schulze-Makuch of Washington State University said the following: "The first question is whether Earth-like conditions can be found on other worlds, since we know empirically that those conditions could harbour life. The second question is whether conditions exist on exoplanets that suggest the possibility of other forms of life, whether known to us or not."

The ESI rating comes from several factors such as size, density, and distance from the parent star. The PHI looks at different set of factors like if the world has a rocky or frozen surface, has an atmosphere or a magnetic field. PHI also takes into account chemistry such as if organic compounds are present. And if liquid solvents are available for vital chemical reactions.

Earth Similarity Index (ESI)

Earth - 1.00

Gliese 581g - 0.89

Gliese 581d - 0.74

Gliese 581c - 0.70

Mercury - 0.60Mars - 0.70

HD 69830 d - 0.60

55 Cnc c - 0.56

Moon - 0.56

Gliese 581e - 0.53

The Gliese 581 system has been well studied by astronomers and comprises four or five planets orbiting a red dwarf star. Gliese 581g, Gliese 581d, and Gliese 581c come is first, second, and third, place on the ESI after Earth.

The next exo-planet on the list is HD 69830d. This is a Neptune-size world located in the constellation Puppis because it lies in what is known as the "Goldilocks Zone." This is a area around a parent star where surface temperatures are neither too hot nor too cold for life.

Planetary Habitability Index (PHI)

Titan - 0.64

Mars - 0.59

Europa - 0.49

Gliese 581g - 0.45

Gliese 581d - 0.43

Gliese 581c - 0.41

Jupiter - 0.37

Saturn - 0.37

Venus - 0.37

Enceladus - 0.35

The PHI produced different results with Saturn's moon Titan scoring at the top with a 0.64 followed by Mars (0.59) and Jupiter's moon Europa (0.47) for its subsurface water ocean that is thought to be heated by tidal flexing.

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Ref.

1. BBC. "Most liveable alien worlds ranked" by ( http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15863549 ).

2. Liebertonline. Astrobiology > A Two-Tiered Approach to Assessing the Habitability of Exoplanets. ( http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/abs/10.1089/ast.2010.0592 ).

Evidence of Alien Life on Meteorite Claim

That alien life form is/was very similar to a known giant bacterium known as Titanospirillum velox. An organism found here on planet Earth.

So claims Dr. Richard B. Hoover, an astrobiologist with NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. He has traveled to very remote areas on Earth such as Antarctica, Siberia, and Alaska for ten years now collecting meteorites. His report, which was published in the March edition of The Journal of Cosmology.

Dr. Hoover been tracking down the very rare class of meteorites, called Cl1 carbonaceous chondrites. There are only nine such meteorites that have been recovered on Earth. Inside these meteorites are fossil evidence of bacterial life within such rocks. This, by extension his report suggests; that we are not alone in the universe.

quote: "I interpret it as indicating that life is more broadly distributed than restricted strictly to the planet earth. This field of study has just barely been touched -- because quite frankly, a great many scientist would say that this is impossible.” end quote.

For more details, please use the link below in the Ref section.

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Ref.

1. Foxnew.com. "Exclusive: NASA Scientist Claims Evidence of Alien Life on Meteorite" by Garrett Tenney. March 5, 2011. (http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/03/05/exclusive-nasa-scientists-claims-evidence-alien-life-meteorite/).

A New Earth Size World Discovered!

Got this bit of news via the Drudge Report...

US astronomers reported on Wednesday that they have discovered a Earth-size planet that might be habitable, and it is orbiting a nearby star. They also added that they think there could be many more such planets in outer space.

The new planet, discovered by a team of astronomers from the University of California at Santa Cruz, and from the Carnegie Institution of Washington; the new world is orbiting the red dwarf star Gliese 581. Its right smack in the middle of that star's "habitable zone" they said.

The scientists have dubbed this new world Gliese 581g and it has a mass three to four times that of our own Earth, and a orbital period of just under 37 days (i.e. a year on this planet just takes 37 days to complete). It is no doubt a rocky world and it has enough gravity to hold onto an atmosphere. So Says Professor Steven Vogt of U of C, Santa Cruz. The world has a diameter of 1.2 to 1.4 times that of Earth. The gravity would be about the same or slightly higher than Earth "Normal."

Gliese 581 is about 20 light years away from our own solar system. Gliese581g is tidally locked to its star, meaning that one side is aways facing teh star and the other is facing away in perpetual darkness. The scientists gues that teh average surface temperture would be about -24 to +10 degrees Fahrenheit (-31 to -12 degrees Celsius).

More details will be published in the Astrophysical Journal and online at arXiv.org soon.

Quote: "Any emerging life forms on the new planet would have a wide range of stable climates to choose from and to evolve around, depending on their longitude," Vogt said.

In their report, the scientists in fact announce the discovery of two new planets around Gliese 581, bringing the total number of known planets around this star to six.

That is the most yet discovered in a planetary system other than Earth's solar system. End Quote.

UPDATE (September 30, 2010): Found image on Space.com. link posted below in Ref. section.

UPDATE 1 (September 30, 2010): From article posted to comcast.net this date.

"This really is the first Goldilocks planet," said co-discoverer R. Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institution of Washington.

Seems like R. Paul Butler has managed to already name the new world after his wife! Unofficially, its being called: Zarmina's World;

(http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-science/20100929/US.SCI.New.Earths/).

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Ref

1. Yahoo News/AFP. September 29, 2010.(http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100929/sc_afp/usastronomyplanet_20100929210707).

2. Space.com (http://www.space.com/php/multimedia/imagedisplay/img_display.php?pic=gliese-581-exoplanet-100929-02.jpg&cap=The+orbits+of+planets+in+the+Gliese+581+system+are+compared+to+those+of+our+own+solar+system.+The+Gliese+581+star+has+about+30+percent+the+mass+of+our+sun,+and+the+outermost+planet+is+closer+to+its+star+than+we+are+to+the+sun.+The+4th+planet,+G,+is+a+planet+that+could+sustain+life.+Credit:+Zina+Deretsky,+National+Science+Foundation+[%3Ca+href%3Dhttp://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/earth-like-exoplanet-possibly-habitable-100929.html%3EFull+Story%3C/a%3E]).

NASA Kepler Mission Discovered Earth Size Worlds

From Foxnews.com comes this article quoted in its entirety.

Scientists celebrated Sunday after finding more than 700 suspected new planets -- including up to 140 similar in size to Earth -- in just six weeks of using a powerful new space observatory.

Early results from NASA’s Kepler Mission, a small satellite observing deep space, suggested planets like Earth were far more common than previously thought.

Past discoveries suggested most planets outside our solar system were gas giants such as Jupiter and Saturn -- but the new evidence tipped the balance in favor of solid worlds.

Astronomers said the discovery meant the chances of eventually finding truly Earth-like planets capable of sustaining life rose sharply.

NASA so far formally announced only five new exoplanets -- those outside our solar system -- from the mission because its scientists were still analyzing Kepler’s finds to confirm they are actually planets.

“The figures suggest our galaxy, the Milky Way [which has more than 100 billion stars] will contain 100 million habitable planets, and soon we will be identifying the first of them,” said Dimitar Sasselov, professor of astronomy at Harvard University and a scientist on the Kepler Mission. "There is a lot more work we need to do with this, but the statistical result is loud and clear, and it is that planets like our own Earth are out there."

End quote.

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Ref.

Foxnews.com. July 25, 2010. "NASA's Deep Space Camera Locates Host of 'Earths'" (http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/07/25/nasas-deep-space-camera-locates-host-earths/?test=latestnews).